The question came from a reader, boldly and suddenly, at the tail-end of a casual conversation that seemed headed elsewhere. 

“So why do you publish the names of those guys killed in Iraq?  Isn’t that some kind of anti-war statement?”

The Lincoln Journal Star has printed in the past five years or so the names of more than 4,000 women and men killed in the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The reasons are simple enough: The names are information, the heartbreaking detail of the terrible price of war, in the words of John McCain. Those short paragraphs are also individual memorials, a pause to pay tribute.

Of course, all readers will see those names through a personal lens.

Guided by their own lights, two thoughtful individuals could separately conclude that the published names represent the bitter harvest of misbegotten foreign policy or the tally of the sacrifice necessary in freedom’s cause.

The right to that difference of opinion is what we celebrated this star-spangled weekend. It is the essence of the democratic experience.

But don’t read anything into the act of publishing. There ain’t an ounce of politics in it.

Was it a ‘fabrication’?

That’s the word several readers used in e-mails and telephone calls to describe the image of a letter reproduced on Page 1 of the June 28 edition.

The letter from City Hall was addressed to Jon Carlson and outlined code violations — deficiencies Carlson would later correct — at a rental unit he owned near 17th and M streets. The letter was included as illustration in a look at Carlson’s record as a landlord, a valid concern now that he has taken on responsibilities for working with rental property owners to improve housing in the city core.

Here’s the catch: The letter was dated 2002, but the letterhead bore the name of  Mayor Chris Beutler, who wasn’t in that office at the time. How could this be?

Staff members quickly verified that the letter carried the genuine text of the notice mailed to Carlson in ’02.  The city had stored the text electronically, and when the Journal Star asked for a copy of the letter, the printout provided was on the new administration’s letterhead.

Editors concur that this discrepancy should have been caught and addressed before publication. And they were relieved the mistake was an oversight.

After all, no error is taken lightly; fabrication can be grounds for dismissal.

TV Week is no more

The Journal Star’s longtime listing guide has been discontinued beginning today.

To make up for the loss to some extent, the daily TV listings have been strengthened:

* The Sunday listings now appear in the Sunday A.M. feature section, a change that is consistent with the newspaper’s longtime practice of packaging listings all other days in the feature section.

* Added best-bet highlights will help guide that day’s viewing and point to the week ahead. 

The change was prompted by economics and changing times.

TV Week suffered from declining reader interest, fragmentation of the TV program menu and rising newsprint prices.

A readership study of the Lincoln market showed precipitous decline in its use.

From 2003 to 2006, readership of the TV Week section declined more than 10 percent. In addition, the number of  “don’t read” responses was higher for TV Week than any section of the Sunday paper.

The contributing factors are many. Channel surfing provides viewers a quick taste of the increasing range of broadcast and cable programming. Online and on-screen program guides are growing in popularity.

Meanwhile, the cost of keeping this failing product on life-support was steadily rising.

Some readers will be unhappy with this decision, so a TV Hotline has been set up to take reader feedback.

To reach the TV Hotline and to leave a comment, call  (402) 473-7281.

“Your Newspaper” is as an occasional column that will discuss the changing world of journalism and the Lincoln Journal Star. The writer, Michael Nelson, was named editor of the Journal Star this spring after almost 35 years at The Kansas City Star.